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New Personalized Medicine Director

CU School of Medicine

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AURORA, Colo. – Kathleen Barnes,
PhD, has been named head of the Division of Biomedical Informatics and
Personalized Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of
Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Dr.
Barnes, who is currently professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University,
also will serve as the director of the University of Colorado Center for
Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine.

Dr.
Barnes, based in the Division of Allergy & Clinical Immunology in the
Department of Medicine, holds joint appointments in the Division of Pulmonary
& Critical Care Medicine and the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic
Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public
Health, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

She
received her PhD in biomedical anthropology with a concentration on immunology,
environmental epidemiology, and medical entomology at the University of Florida
in Gainesville. She began her fellowship in immunogenetics at the Johns Hopkins
Asthma and Allergy Center in 1993 under the mentorship of the late David G.
Marsh, PhD, and joined the faculty two years later.

“Dr.
Barnes has had an enormous impact in understanding the role of ancestry and
genetics in the development of asthma, has extremely strong funding from the National
Institutes of Health, and has led collaborative research programs,” said David
Schwartz, MD, chairman of the Department of Medicine. “Her vision for the
center and division will take advantage the many exciting opportunities that
exist on our campus.”

The
Center and Division represent a significant investment by several partners on
the Anschutz Medical Campus, including the School of Medicine, the Department
of Medicine, University Physicians Inc., University of Colorado Health and
Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Richard
D. Krugman, MD, University vice chancellor for health affairs and Dean of the
School of Medicine, said the newly developed Center for Biomedical Informatics
and Personalized Medicine is a key initiative for the Anschutz Medical Campus
and demonstrates the collaboration that exists on campus between research
programs and clinical affiliates.

“I’m confident that personalized medicine will
revolutionize medicine, research and education as we know it,” Krugman said.
“It’s almost impossible to quantify the amount of knowledge to be gained by
examining our genome – the blueprints that make us who we are.”

Dr.
Barnes plans to visit campus frequently during the next six months and will
assume her full time responsibilities as division head and center director at
the end of October 2015.

About the University of Colorado School of
Medicine

Faculty
at the University of Colorado School of Medicine work to advance science and
improve care. These faculty members include physicians, educators and
scientists at University of Colorado Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado,
Denver Health, National Jewish Health, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical
Center. The school is located on the Anschutz Medical
Campus,
one of four campuses in the University of Colorado system. To learn more about
the medical school’s care, education, research and community engagement, visit
its website.